Urban Naxal Bogey: Move for Harsher Bill to Curb Civil Rights? https://thewire.in/politics/urban-naxal-bogey-move-for-harsher-bill-to-curb-civil-rights P. Raman The Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024, iis seen as an attempt to test waters....many of its provisions can be misused against activists, protesters and opponents. ..
For the BJP, “urban Naxal” means almost everything anti-BJP. The term “anti-national” has a limited reach and application but “urban Naxal” can be used to target political parties, intellectuals, atheists, those who criticise patriarchy, feminist groups, trade unions, slum groups, lawyers, farmers’ movements, journalists and those NGOs that are championing the causes of the oppressed classes. It can cover anyone critical of the establishment.
The left-wing extremist groups have over the years felt the need to establish units of intellectuals, students and youth. In the late 1960s and the 1970s, when the Naxalite movement began taking root in the rural interiors, it also influenced sections of the urban youth. There was violence in Kolkata and in several universities. A parallel media popular among sections of youths and intellectuals emerged in English and the regional languages. Youth musical squads spiritedly sang songs like ‘Amar baadi, tomaar baadi, Maor baadi Naxal baadi (My house, your house, Mao’s house, Naxalbari)’.